Smoker Campaign at Peak As Strippers Aid Politicians

NO WRITER ATTRIBUTED
December 13, 1947

Sex seized the spotlight yesterday in the all-out campaign for Freshman Smoker Committee berths, as two local stripteuses, Sally Keith (above) and Scarlett Kelly, nothing loth to free improvement of social relations, willingly gave a helping hand to resourceful politicians of the Class of '51.

Tassel-twirler Keith, of the Crawford Theatrical Bar, led off the two-pronged attack by signing a statement that she would "consider appearing at the Smoker" on condition that "friends" Thomas W. Grossman and Sherril H. Houston are elected Monday.

Scarlett Kelly, perennial star at the Old Howard, stole a march on her Scollay Square rival, however, with a soapbox oration before a shouting capacity crowd in the Union last night at 6 o'clock on behalf of candidates David A. Brockway, George A. Furness, Jr., and Judson Wood, Jr.

Sex keynoted the campaign also in the myriad posters on the walls of the Union. Union Committee members removed many of these, in the interests of "good taste," such as:

"Vote for the man with the pregnant plan:

A chorus girl for every man!"

A placard bearing the last name of Richard A. Van Deuren, and the slogan; "It's All Over the Yard" was among the first to go on the pretext that the "V" and "D" were inordinately large.

Although all posters bearing pictures of sexy women, either photographs or drawings by such noted artists as Varga and Petty, were removed after lunch by John Cowles, Jr., Union Committee member in charge of Smoker elections, they were not long absent from the scene, and by suppertime the previous maximum had almost been attained.

By lunchtime today, however, all posters in the lobby and reading rooms of the Union must be taken down, by edict of the Union Committee.

Not all the advertising was confined to the ever-popular subject of sex or to typical political promises of unlimited liquor. The possibilities of the air-waves did not escape the attention of two candidates, who played "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette" from their Holworthy window all yesterday afternoon, until cut short by a University police raid.